Highlighting the Education Program, Fall 2015: Blackthorn’s Sloe

In Fall 2015, we are happy to see content significant to today’s classroom and world. We can marvel at how the first dissertation, ever to be written in comic book form, was done at Teachers College, as we look back at The Comic Book Project and appreciate rapid growth in the teaching of visual literacy. Or, how a disengaged student takes the path to a TC doctorate, as educators nation-wide bravely battle dropout prevention. We might weigh the impact of MOOCs in higher education, and race and class on schooling, in Africa and across America, while we examine the expanding U.S. Latino diaspora. In the spirit of gaming, we play with library lore — riddles and puzzles — via Lemoncello, as we listen to the voices of engagement, TC Public Space, and consider the history and influence of the student press. Prompted by good books, expert speakers, and thought-provoking film, these talks expand the reach of our knowledge into, and across, academic programs and disciplines, including: art and art education, English, family and community, communications-media-and learning technologies design, bilingual and bicultural education, international and comparative education, education and public policy.

Through redesign of the Everett Cafe, a fresh approach ties current news to special news displays, publications, and events. For Unflattening, we coordinate a serious comics display of classic, seminal, and other books on creative methods of teaching and learning. After Landing on Mars, comes Sensational Gods, with a nod to St. Nick, the Nutcracker, and Winter Solstice — and, topping it off, with seasonal icing are blogs detailing attractive titles and covers. Other news selections, daily and thematic, reflect the depth and breadth of subjects in the broader field of education: history, literature, art, science, and much more, while music of all genres graces the Everett stage each week and culminates with Festive Collaborations and Gypsy Jazz.

There’s space, in and outside the box, indeed also for the black box, where we can think, explore, imagine, play, plan ahead. With construction underway for the fourth floor’s Smith Learning Theater, we look forward to sharing new educational experiences and stretching our interpretation of new forms of teaching and learning. Enter the court of Navarre, proclaimed the “wonder of the world” and “little Academe/Still and contemplative in living art”. It is said that Love’s Labour’s Lost is in the zeitgeist, while the Gottesman players stand by…